It's official: Nintendo slacking off on Wii Shop releases
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Jun 17th 2008 at 3:30PM }
Before you get too angrified about this, know Nintendo is not alone in its recent relaxed approach to digital distribution. Gamasutra also profiled Xbox Live Arcade and the PSN Store and discovered similar results -- only whereas Nintendo is padding out its downloadable releases with more WiiWare releases, XBLA is filling more space with Xbox Originals (while lowering the number of XBLA titles), and the PSN Store is carrying more PSP titles (as it reduces the number of PS1 and PS3 games that also appear on the service).
So what's going on? Well, it beats us. As Gamasutra points out, digital releases are ideal for filling an empty spring/summer schedule, so you'd think Nintendo and its rivals would be stocking up on their digital wares at this time of year -- but apparently not! Hit the "Source" link below for more informative and colorful graphs.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SegaPleaseMakePanzerDragoonWii! @ Jun 17th 2008 3:52PM
It's not all bad. According to the above graph, N64 releases have been and continue to be pretty consistant into 2008. It's not all bad :)
trE @ Jun 17th 2008 4:44PM
I bet it is because of the twilight hack. Now that they have a fix, it will pick up.
ECG @ Jun 17th 2008 6:52PM
I don't see your logic.
trE @ Jun 18th 2008 7:40PM
Then you must not know what the twiligjt hack does. It gives you free wiiware and VC games.
Sonic_13 @ Jun 17th 2008 4:36PM
Hmm..strange.
Even if you were waiting to announce the release of some really good WiiWare and/or Virtual Console games until E3, there are still plenty of other games that could be released instead.
Also, the number of WiiWare titles depends on what companies develop, so fluctuations in the releases of those games could be understandable, but Virtual Console games are already made.
velocitySTRIKE @ Jun 17th 2008 4:49PM
Well, firstly, angrified is a fantastic coinage. And secondly, I've totally noticed this in the UK, where we've had one new WiiWare release since the service started compared to a bajillion in NA.
HellsHammer @ Jun 17th 2008 6:40PM
I'm tired of the marketing strategies and such. Stop with the secrecy and elitist attitude toward the players who made your business.
You want to sell some old video games?
Make them AVAILABLE.
kavorka @ Jun 17th 2008 6:45PM
Hear hear! I completely agree. I have Wii shop points out the yin-yang, I'm just waiting for worthy titles.
They keep dangling these crappy releases out in front of us, and after Wii Fit, they owe us 20 year die hard Nintendo vets a little somethin' special.
If I want to get fit, I go for a run. Outside.
/me tries to bottle up his rageahol
Beneloth @ Jun 17th 2008 6:56PM
It's worse here in Europe, at least for the Wiiware titles. After the start with 6 titles a month ago, they just released 1 (yes only one) more Wiiware title. *sigh*
silwecad @ Jun 17th 2008 7:08PM
They've been releasing a lot less snes games than I would have expected. Even genesis and tg16 have had more games released.
smithiefan85 @ Jun 17th 2008 9:41PM
guitar hero aerosmith
Jon L-S @ Jun 18th 2008 9:01AM
For the people here this doesn't make sense - we can find previously released games we know we want easily and have a good idea which VC games are worth buying. Nintendo is trying to cater to a general public that sucks at figuring things out, if its not a massively well known title ie Super Mario or Zelda, they probably won't know what it is. Now that there's a substantial library of games available on VC and WiiWare - especially if you bought the system more recently - they aren't compelled to release games at any particular speed. At this point I'd be fine seeing 1-2 combined Wiiware/VC games each week, as long as the VC games are decent games and not totally obscure/balls.
Jrzshore @ Jun 18th 2008 10:02AM
The whole reason I bought a Wii was for the VC. The lack of content is ridiculous, especially when you can get an emulator and have access to everything for FREE.
People like me want to do the right thing, but Nintendo sure is making it difficult. I think part of it is they don't want the old game to outshine the new ones, but good luck on that.